StatCounter

Cup of coffee

Follow me on

Subscribe Here:

Blog Archive

Kiva loans that change lives

Sunday, November 13, 2016

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. 2 Corinthians 11 v 13-15 (Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing)

“If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” Matthew 19:21

“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 16:25

“Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24

“ My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” John 18:36

“ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36

“Do not love the world or the things in the world If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Luke 9:23

“Enter ye into at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, bu inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Matthew 7 v 14-16b

Do they sound like the words of a God who wants you to gain the world, and lose your soul? Yet so many "Christians" today truly believe in the false teachings of these predatory prosperity gospel preachers, who twist the Word of God in order to gain profit and power for themselves. How do they do it? It seems they play to that which is most narcissistic and corporeal in us. I mean, these evangelists do not even try to hide their great wealth. Why should they? They're blessed, but certainly not by Jesus. So if not Jesus, by whom?

Moreover, considering the almost complete dominance of New Age "Christianity" in the mainstream media, not to mention the political realm, one must consider if there is an even more powerful agenda besides the greed of individual preachers. Especially now that one of its followers has been elected president. That is the "longtime disciple of “the great Norman Vincent Peale”--DonaldTrump. This, of course, should come as no surprise when the fastest growing segment of "Christianity" in recent years has been among churches who preach the anti-Christian "prosperity gospel", an oxymoron if there ever was one.

“The fastest growing segment of professing Christianity in recent years has been among churches connected with the Positive Confession movement or Word-Faith movement (all part of the modern Charismatic movement). It has involved two distinct but closely related factions: the Norman Vincent Peale/Robert Schuller Positive-Possibility thinkers/Positive Mental Attitude, with their roots in New Thought; and the Kenneth Hagin/Kenneth Copeland Positive Confession and Word-Faith groups, which have their roots in E.W. Kenyon, William Branham, and the Manifest Sons of God/Latter Rain movement. Well-known names among its leaders are E.W. Kenyon, Charles Capps, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Frederick K.C. Price, Robert Tilton, and David [Paul] Yonggi Cho [also: Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Paula White, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, Ed Young, Benny Hinn, Michael Murdoch, etc.], . It does not yet constitute a new denomination, but it certainly represents innovative teachings outside of mainstream Christianity. The situation is so serious now because of the dominance over the so-called Christian media achieved by the teachers of Positive/Possibility Thinking and Positive Confession.

D.R. McConnell points out that "any new religious movement [within Protestantism] must bear the scrutiny of two criteria: biblical fidelity and historical orthodoxy." Regrettably, the Positive Confession movement fails on both counts. The historical roots of this movement (which Charles Farah has called "Faith Formula Theology") lie in the occult, and most recently, in New Thought and its off-shoot, the Mind Science cults. Its Biblical basis is found only in the peculiar interpretations of its own leaders, not in generally accepted Christian theology.

- As the name "Positive Confession"/"Word-Faith" implies, this movement teaches that faith is a matter of what we say more than whom we trust or what truths we embrace and affirm in our hearts. The term "positive confession" refers to the teaching that words have creative power. What you say, Word-Faith teachers claim, determines everything that happens to you. Your "confessions," that is, the things you say -- especially the favors you demand of God -- must all be stated positively and without wavering. Then God is required to answer. Word-Faith believers view their positive confessions as an incantation by which they can conjure up anything they desire: "Believe it in your heart; say it with your mouth. That is the principle of faith. You can have what you say" (Charismatic Chaos, pp. 281, 285).

This is at the heart of the Positive Confession movement today, also known as the "name-it-and-claim-it" gospel. The Positive Confession movement is nothing but a charismatic form of Christian Science. This can be substantiated by simply comparing the similarities in their common beliefs. Positive Confession is basically warmed-over New Thought dressed in evangelical/charismatic language. Positive Confession's basic beliefs can be summarized as follows:

1.Faith is a force that both God and man can use: "Faith is a force just like electricity or gravity" (Copeland), and it is the substance out of which God creates whatever is (Capps). God uses faith, and so may we in exactly the same way in order to produce the same results through obedience to the same "laws of faith" (Capps) that God applied in creation. "You have the same ability [as God has] dwelling or residing on the inside of you" (Capps). "We have all the capabilities of God. We have His faith" (Copeland).

2. Faith's force is released by speaking words: "Words are the most powerful thing in the universe" because they "are containers" that "carry faith or fear and they produce after their kind" (Capps). God operates by these very same laws. "God had faith in His own words ... God had faith in His faith, because He spoke words of faith and they came to pass. That faith force was transported by words ... the God-kind-of-faith ... is released by the words of your mouth" (Hagin). "Creative power was in God's mouth. It is in your mouth also" (Capps).

3. Man is a "little god" in God's class: "Man was designed or created by God to be the god of this world" (Tilton, Hagin, Capps). "Adam was the god of this world ... [but he] sold out to Satan, and Satan became the god of this world" (Hagin). "We were created to be gods over the earth, but remember to spell it with a little 'g'" (Tilton, Hagin, Capps). "Adam was created in God's class ... to rule as a god ... by speaking words" (Copeland). "Man was created in the God class ... We are a class of gods ... God himself spawned us from His innermost being ... We are in God; so that makes us part of God (2 Cor 5:17)" (Copeland).

4. Anyone -- occultist or Christian -- can use the faith force: Because man is a little god "in God's class: very capable of operating on the same level of faith as God" (Capps), and "because all men are spirit beings" (Hagin), therefore anyone, whether Christian or pagan, can release this "faith force" by speaking words if he only believes in his words as God believes in His (Hagin). "God is a faith God. God releases His faith in Words, [and we must do the same:] ... Everything you say [positive or negative] will come to pass" (Capps). "Spiritual things are created by WORDS. Even natural, physical things are created by WORDS" (Hagin).

5. You get what you confess: The vital key is confessing, or speaking aloud, and thereby, releasing the force of faith. "You get what you say" (Hagin, Hunter). "Only by mouth confession can faith power be released, allowing tremendous things to happen" (Cho). "Remember, the key to receiving the desires of your heart is to make the words of your mouth agree with what you want" (Copeland). "Whatever comes out of your mouth shall be produced in your life" (Tilton). "They're [his two children] 30-some years of age today, and I don't believe I prayed more than half a dozen times for both of them in all these years. Why? Because you can have what you say -- and I had already said it!" (Hagin).

6. Never make a negative confession: The tongue "can kill you, or it can release the life of God within you ... whether you believe right or wrong, it is still the law" (Capps). There is power in "the evil fourth dimension" (Cho). If you confess sickness you get it, if you confess health you get it; whatever you say you get" (Hagin). "Faith is as a seed ... you plant it by speaking it" (Capps). "The spoken word ... releases power -- power for good or power for evil" (Bashan). Therefore, it is very important never to speak anything negative but only to make a positive confession -- hence the name of the Positive Confession movement.

- Positive Confession leaders have a wrong view of faith: Instead of trust in God as its object, it is a metaphysical force they trust. They have a wrong view of God: He is not sufficient in Himself, but can only do what He does by using this universal faith-force in obedience to certain cosmic laws. They have a wrong view of man: He is a little god in God's class who has the same powers as God and can use the same force of faith by obedience to the same laws that God also must obey. They also have a wrong view of redemption and the cross of Christ.

- Word-Faith teachers owe their ancestry to groups like Christian Science, Swedenborgianism, Theosophy, Science of Mind, and New Thought -- not to classical Pentecostalism. It reveals that at their very core, Word-Faith teachings are corrupt. Their undeniable derivation is cultish, not Christian. The sad truth is that the gospel proclaimed by the Word-Faith movement is not the gospel of the New Testament. Word-Faith doctrine is a mongrel system, a blend of mysticism, dualism, and gnosticism that borrows generously from the teachings of the metaphysical cults. The Word-Faith movement may be the most dangerous false system that has grown out of the charismatic movement so far, because so many charismatics are unsure of the finality of Scripture (Charismatic Chaos, p. 290).

- Linked to the Positive Confession movement is the concept of Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). PMA has become the major link between sorcery and Christianity. It is the human potential movement that incorporates the age old Eastern mystique that all men can acquire godhood, that "we can achieve anything we conceive." But the Bible says: "With God all things are possible." PMA, however, declares: "With man all things are possible," which means either that we do not need God or that we are God. Paul said, "I can do all things through Him [Christ] who strengthens me." The New Age/PMA "Christ" is a state of consciousness rather than a historic Person. The Christian has a positive attitude not because he believes in the power of positive thinking, but because he is trusting in God. The PMA that is promoted in today's New Age, however, is based upon humanistic psychology's first article of faith: "Human potential is infinite!" The real Christian is happy and positive in all circumstances because he believes that God, who alone is infinite, loves and cares for him. These two concepts -- Christian and PMA -- are mutually contradictory, in spite of the sincere people who believe they are the same thing expressed in different language.

- Those directly responsible for bringing PMA into the professing church are Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller. Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, the originators or the PMA concept, talk about "God" in their books, but their "God" is a metaphysical "Divine Power" that can be tapped into through mind-power techniques (from visualization to positive self-talk and other forms of self-hypnosis and self-image psychology). Hill and Stone don't substitute PMA for faith, but promote an even more dangerous idea: that PMA and faith are one and the same, that believing in the power of the mind is somehow the same as believing in God; that the human mind is some kind of magic talisman that wields a metaphysical force with infinite potential because, somehow, it is part of what they call Infinite Intelligence. This is the "God" of the mind-science cults and of the New Age.

Note: There are many faithful believers who live modestly and will never have more than the basic necessities of life. Yet they are content to have what they have. The prosperity teachers ridicule such and say that they only have that little because they don't trust God for more; the fact of their contentment (which is highly regarded by God) is looked upon as a lack of faith. And they are chastised because they haven't got the faith to get more so they can give more. Ultimately, the giving is expected to go into the coffers of the prosperity teacher; they may give to others, but not apart from also giving to the prosperity teacher.

All the prosperity teachers use a particular fear tactic to establish their rule for giving -- if you don't give, God will curse you. Many also teach that if one wishes to use the prosperity gospel for selfish ends -- to acquire personal wealth without giving -- it isn't going to work. If, however, one uses the prosperity gospel with the intention of acquiring wealth for unselfish purposes (i.e., giving to the prosperity teacher, no doubt), God's promise is that He will shower abundant financial blessings upon him.

There is not a single prosperity teacher who can rightly divide the Word of Truth sufficiently to be qualified as a teacher in the Church. They are renegades who present their own theories as absolute, Biblical authority. They allegorize, theorize, and spiritualize the Word of God; the only time they approach it from a literal standpoint is if it fits in with something they just happen to be saying that's true. Bottom line, the fact is that to deny the reality and to attempt to alter reality with one's positive words and/or thoughts is witchcraft; it is not Biblical. (Source: Media Spotlight -- v.13, #1, 12/92.)

* The material in this report, unless otherwise noted, was excerpted and/or adapted from two books: Beyond Seduction (pp. 51-53) and The Seduction of Christianity (pp. 28, 217).

I will be the first to say that much of what these preachers say feels right, feels good, makes us feel secure, and much of what they say is right, and does make sense. Especially when they preach tolerance and love, preach against hate and violence and refuse to judge, etc. It doesn't seem that Jesus would have a problem with that, right? Wrong. Because at the same time they are undermining and twisting His word, doing exactly what Jesus preached against: gaming not only gaining the world, teaching us that is what Jesus wants us to do. The material world is their kingdom...let them have it.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

“Despite living in "the free world", there are very few free men and women walking around in our democracies. Very few indeed. This is because some men and women have a human failing that drives them to want to manipulate others for the sake of power. That manipulation has enslaved humanity throughout most of its history, and still presents the most ominous threat to democracy. Following is an outline to that manipulation, and what we can do about it.

WE THINK WE LIVE in a democracy, which is the type of society in which ultimate power lies with the people. Our leaders are supposed to be our servants, accountable to the people and fulfilling the wishes of the people, making decisions for the greater good of all. Of course, for the people to exercise this power responsibly and wisely, they need to have an accurate picture and understanding of what is going on in the world, so that they are able to steer society in the best direction. (Driving with poor eyesight is a recipe for a crash!) The lifeblood of democracies, therefore, is the free and undistorted flow of information, and the transparency of society's workings (except of course where those workings directly endanger national security).

The rate and density of information flow has been rising exponentially since the end of the Second World War. The arrival of television networks, electronic printing presses, satellites, cheap data routers, the computer and the internet have meant that information flow and processing have never been faster, easier, cheaper or more far-reaching. Whilst this potentially increases news flow, diversity and opinion, in reality the counter-pressures of market forces and corporate conglomeration, which has led to a virtual media monopoly where only a handful of multinationals now own and control the vast majority of mainstream media outlets, have meant that there has actually been an overall contraction in information diversity and opinion. Mainstream media is now almost invariably mass-produced, corporate-friendly, nationalistic and unchallenging, hooking the audience with a riveting milieu of banality, fear, violence, hatred, and sex.

With control over the West's mass media falling into the hands of a small group of multinationals (only 5 control just about all the US media), the potential for information flow to be spun by the interests of big business (and governments, which have a symbiotic relationship with big business) has never been greater. In fact, research directly demonstrates that news stories or opinions which are anti-capitalist, anti-nationalistic or anti-government are far less likely to make it into print or be covered by television than those that support capitalism, nationalism and our present governments. And reporters who do not tow the line with the media owner's opinions are likely to find themselves quickly out of a job!

So we know that the information channels that most people use in our democratic societies are becoming less free and undistorted, a process that is eroding the heart of democracy itself — the people's power. In fact, you could say that the level of democracy is inversely proportional to the extent to which information is controlled and spun. One positive thing that has come out of the recent US/UK illegal invasion of Iraq, and the murder of a hundred thousand of its civilians, is that people (at least outside the US) are beginning to wake up to the level of public manipulation. In the US, for example, 70% of people recently polled believed that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for the World Trade Centre disaster. This is undeniably false and even Bush eventually and begrudgingly admitted that there was no connection, but this was only after stringing the people along on this one because the government needed public support.

Here in the UK, mass media has more diversity and so the people were not so obedient to their masters' wishes. That said, the lack of public support, party support, intelligence support and even Cabinet support, was not enough to stop Tony Blair from dragging this country into an illegal war alongside the US. With the UK's media diversity, the government was forced to do all the spinning itself, putting out lie after lie to the British public and the news agencies. The result is that Blair is the least trusted Prime Minister in recent British history, with his grin (that so many Americans seem to find endearing) synonymous with deceit. Blair's whole edifice of deception is looking more and more fragile, but that does not mean that he is necessarily out of government. A bit of PR, the sacrifice of a few scapegoats, photo-opportunities with world leaders, an adoring kiss from his wife on camera, and he will probably hold on to his job… such is politics.

Our leaders don't care about democracy. Why should they? After all, being accountable to the people only reduces their power, and as George Orwell said, "no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. The object of power is power." The same holds for corporations… why would corporations care about people when their bottom line is the maximisation of profit? Sure, there are many instances when caring about people does maximise profits, but rest assured that when the two clash, and they often do behind the scenes, profits ALWAYS come before people, unless prevented from doing so by legislation. However, as government and big business are bedfellows, with ex-politicians often sitting on the boards of big companies, the business community is able to unduly and undemocratically influence that legislative process, steering our legal system towards a corporate and controlled state. Governments and corporations work hand in hand to erode democracy because that is in their interest. That is their nature. But for how long can democracy be eroded before it becomes a dictatorship? How much democratic savings do we have left in the bank before we wake up to the fact that we are merely a pseudo-democracy? (Some might argue that we are this already.)

If we want to live in societies that are democracies only in name, bearing all the attributes of dictatorships, then we only need to carry on in the direction we are headed: trust the government, wave our flags, support our boys and girls murdering in far-off countries, read the newspapers, watch the television, and vote every few years. Then we can congratulate ourselves that we are the "free world", looking with scorn on the barbarity of dictatorships in many developing countries. If that is what we want, then we will have it soon, sooner than we can possibly imagine. (There are huge military programs underway in the US for mass civilian control for when the people finally realize that they no longer have the freedoms of a democracy… but by that time it will probably be too late.)

If we the people decide that democracy is not worth giving up, that power is safest in our hands rather than in those who have the pathology to be driven towards power in the first place, then we need to be more proactive. First of all, we need to fully realize that whenever any group of people has a disproportionate influence over government policy, democracy has suffered a severe blow, period. There are no exceptions. If criticism of government or corporate activity in the US, for example, is automatically labeled"unpatriotic" or "un-American", then the America that is being defended is decidedly not a democracy and therefore not worth defending. Secondly, we need to understand exactly how the people are manipulated into doing the bidding of their leaders and the multinationals, so glaringly against their own interest. We need to understand the methods of manipulation. (I deliberately use the term propaganda sparingly as it is more difficult to define and understand.)

METHODS OF MANIPULATION

Control The Media: This is the first and most important step in the control of information. Media ownership is central to the manipulation of the people. Manipulate the people, and you manipulate their vote. You either control the media by owning it or by doing favours to those who own it. In the United States, large corporations own the media and these, in turn, receive favours from the Government in the form of influence over legislation and special tax breaks. Worryingly, only five mega-media corporations now control almost all of the US media, which is why the American people are among the most ignorant and brainwashed in the world.

Television: Television has done more harm to society than any other medium. It has shrunk attention spans with its 5 second sound bites, presenting us with a diet of dissociated facts and trivialities, completely out of any historical or sociological context, usually with an emotional charge to keep us watching. In its fairground approach, serious questions and reasoning is replaced by slick emotional imagery, discussion is reduced to a screaming match between two opposing extremists in a ludicrously polarized debate, and the reality of even serious matters such as war is reduced to entertainment. It would not be an exaggeration to say that television, in its present form, is the nemesis of true democracy. (Although it has the potential to be something far different.)

Perpetual War: A country at war with an enemy (external or internal) is generally a country that is united in fear, and one in which the people are happy to hand over power to their leaders. As Orwell wrote: "The consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival." Until recently, the Soviet Union and communism represented this danger for us in the West. Upon its collapsed, however, there was a rise in civil liberties until the US was able to start a new war to camouflage its imperialist and dictatorial ambitions: The War Against Terror. Since the start of this war, huge swathes of freedoms have been taken back from the people under the guise of "national security" and "protection". The War on Terror has the added advantage of being unwinnable and therefore perpetually serves those who want power. Herman Goering said at the Nuremberg Trials: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Language: Orwell knew better than most the power of language in defining our reality and our behaviour. He wrote in Nineteen Eighty Four, "War is Peace"; doublespeak ominously mirrored by Bush during the Iraq war when he said, "The war in Iraq is really about peace." The assault on Iraq was continually referred to as "liberation", and the US military called it "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Of course, liberation and freedom had little to do with the real reason that the US and UK invaded that country, but the rhetoric at least allows concerned citizens an excuse to deceive themselves into supporting blatant imperialism. Other doublespeak terms used by the military include "collateral damage" for civilian casualties and "the axis of evil" which gives the impression that countries with different ideologies to that of the US are somehow plotting together to hurt the US (when in fact most of these countries have almost no diplomatic relationships with each other). Control language and you control people's thoughts. In 1984, Orwell asserts that the control of language (and the elimination of selected vocabulary) is a prerequisite for the control of the People: "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it… The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought as we understand it now."

Patriotism: At first patriotism might seem a show of solidarity of people and country, but it is actually one of the main methods that people are manipulated into serving their government in ways that may not be in their best interest. Tolstoy wrote: "…the subjection of men to government will always continue as long as patriotism exists, for every ruling power rests on patriotism — on the readiness of men to submit to power… " As long as people are patriotic, they will overlook the sins of their government, both towards their own people, and towards other those in other countries. When Blair is questioned whether he has any regrets over Iraq, for example, he avoids the question and appeals to patriotism, "I think our boys have done a fantastic job," implying that anyone who questions the legitimacy of the Iraqi invasion questions the legitimacy of "our boys". This tendency for evil policy to ride through on a wave of patriotism is particularly prevalent in the US.

Dissociation of the Facts: This is a classic method used by governments and the media to maintain the fantasies that they use to control the thought of their people. For example, the Blair government insisted that the London bombings were the result of irrational religious fanatics, period, because that gets them off the far more likely hook that they were an evil and direct consequence of its murderous foreign policy. In this way, "blow back" from its actions denied. Dissociation of facts is particularly easy with a media source like TV (see 2 above).

Religions and Cults: The promise of eternal life and the threat of hell (the carrot and the stick) approach of most religions and cults has led to more murder, misery, torture, sexual abuse, child abuse, suicide, guilt, shame, anger, perversion, hostility and slavery than any other form of manipulation in history. The Roman Catholic Church has even apologised recently for its abusive past (not that this will have much effect on its behaviour). Anything "fundamentalist" just means that ideology is being put in front of people… a recipe for individual and mass abuse.

Robotic Education: It is a fallacy to believe that only the uneducated can be manipulated. Some believe that the educated are actually the easiest to manipulate because they have been trained to to process so much information that they often become less critical. The educated also tend to need an opinion on everything. Educational today is tailored to manufacturer individuals to support government propaganda. Whereas students in the past were revolutionary and questioned society, today it would seem that that revolutionary edge has been tempered by an acceptance of the corporatisation of society, the poison of patriotism, and the soporific effect of institutionalised entertainment and titillation.

Corporate Slavery: Corporations are mini dictatorships that force people to work long hours for relatively little of the overall profits. Today, most people work for corporations, and so most people are used to dictatorial environments and are left with little time to concern themselves with the state of society and the world. This makes people very susceptible to government manipulation because they are so used to being manipulated at work, and to being slaves to a system. Some believe that the ethos of working long and intense hours, something that even slaves in former times were not subject to, is a good thing for society as it raises everybody's standard of living. This may be true to some extent, but it is still an underhanded manipulation of society, and in a democracy the people should be at least conscious of this fact.

Fear: This is one of the best ways to control people… fear of violence, destitution, disapproval, ridicule, change etc. Fear is used to manipulate people into receiving dangerous and expensive medical treatments, into buying 4x4 vehicles, into buying expensive cosmetics and clothes so that we are loved for being beautiful (and not hated for being old and ugly), into giving money to cancer charities (most of which squander it on chemotherapy poisons that can be statistically worse than no treatment at all), into attending church so we don't go to hell and into being a corporate slave so that we don't find ourselves thrown out on the street by our mortgage company. In fact, fear is the best motivation in governmental, corporate and religious manipulation. (see also 27).

Repeat A Lie: Joseph Goebbels said: "Never admit a lie - simply keep repeating it." This works wonders for governments intent on misleading its citizens. This is the reason why 70% of Americans believe that Iraq was behind 9-11 despite all evidence to the contrary. The Bush propaganda machine just keeps repeating it over and over. And over here in the UK, Blair just keeps repeating that weapons of mass destruction exist and that it was a "good thing" to illegally invade a sovereign state. When no WMD were discovered in Iraq, Blair just started repeating another lie that the world is safer as a result of his disastrous Iraq invasion.

Hide Truth in a Barrage of Lies: This is a very useful method of not getting caught making a lie. The lies that go along with the truthful piece of information spin that truth so that it is no longer any use. When questioned on this method, governments can always hold up their hands in mocked surprise telling us that they give us the truth all along. During the Iraqi war, for example, truth and fiction were deliberately mixed together by the US and UK governments in a very confusing way, with innuendos of fictitious Iraqi military capacity. The government here in the UK is trying to contend that the 45-minute claim in the intelligence dossier actually referred to more conventional weapons, and therefore everyone was telling the truth.

Unnecessary Secrecy: Every government needs to have some level of secrecy in military matters to protect its borders and its people. But when this is used to withhold information from the people which is not necessary for national security then the position of governments to classify information is being abused. This is now happening on a daily basis in so called democracies as governments take a dim view of the people's right to know. This focus on secrecy, often justified by war, is also extending into the corporate world where big business is demanding the right, for reasons ranging from terrorism to competitive edge, to keep its policies and workings secret from the public. When the public is kept in the dark, democracy itself is dimmed.

Vilifying Our Enemies: This is the classic method of manipulation that justifies hash treatment for both internal enemies and external enemies. Drug dealers, murderers, foreign dictators, asylum seekers and people in other countries are often dehumanized to justify their inhumane treatment and often murder at the hands of our governments, society and ourselves. Iraqi soldiers in the Kuwait war, for example, were falsely accused of mass murder of babies on incubators, which justified their mass murder at the hands of the American military. Dehumanization also blocks us making any attempt to try to understand the motives and feelings of our perceived enemies, something that if we did might reveal our own and/or our government's complicity in our enemy's actions. There is a pernicious assumption in our society that trying to understand the motives of someone who has performed an evil act or wants to perform an evil act is the same as condoning that act. Those who wish to manipulate us would far rather we label all acts in response to our society's control mechanisms, either here or abroad, as acts perpetrated by evil and irrational people, rather than evil and irrational acts perpetrated by desperate people. Only the second perspective gives a chance to reconcile with our enemy, something that our controllers would certainly not want (see 3 above).

Evasion of Responsibility: Leading politicians know exactly how to duck and dive their way out of sticky situations by setting up a string of fall guys and girls. Nobody is as expert at this as Blair who has survived several disasters of his prime ministership, any one of which could have terminated his appointment. Master manipulators are great at throwing up smokescreens; at being evasive. The people, therefore, are continually manipulated into thinking the problem is everyone except the leader or corporation involved.

Control Reporters: One of the simplest ways to control the information going to the media is to control which reporters have access to the source of information. You can be sure, for example, that no pacifists were invited along with the military to report on the invasion of Iraq. Another way that reporters where psychologically manipulated during recent middle-east conflicts was by having them embedded — in other words completely dependent and therefore grateful to the US/UK forces for protecting them in hostile environments. You hardly criticism the hand the feeds and protects you!

Advertising/PR: When we live in an environment saturated with corporate advertising and PR, we grow used to their presence. We almost expect to be manipulated into purchasing or consuming something or other. The way that most advertising is conducted is to hook us on an emotional response rather than employing our cerebral cortex — the idea being that more primitive responses of the brain are more predictable and so the outcome of the advertising/PR is more assured. What we don't realize is that these techniques are being used to sell us more than just products or services. They are being used by governments and corporations to sell us ideas and worldviews that support those governments and corporations aims. (Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in the build up of the Iraqi war by the Bush government to manipulate the American people into supporting him — but few people realize this.)

Debt: A people and a nation in debt is far easier to manipulate than one that isn't because its members are so busy paying off their mortgages and rents that they don't have the time, the energy or the inclination to challenge the status quo. The average person is deliberately kept just short of bankruptcy so that he remains a slave to the system. (Slaves only question the system if they can imagine freedom; a slave who has no concept of freedom does not need much control or cohesion.) Manipulation via debt also applies to nations where it is used ruthlessly by the developed countries to enslave undeveloped countries and steal their resources.

Consumerism: Strange how shopping has become the favourite pastime for most young people these days. Hook people on consumerism and they will believe that the dissatisfaction that they feel is because they don't have the latest car or mobile phone. The pursuit of materialism blunts the democratic process for two reasons: firstly, the corporate model becomes the predominant model in society; and secondly, rampant consumerism is unecological and destructive to communities both in here and abroad — something that if people freely thought about they would realize is not in their interest (which is why advertising has to engage them emotionally). Consumerism has become such a pillar of modern social control that it is hardly even questioned any more.

Fantasy and Entertainment: Almost everyone is glued to their televisions many hours each day, and many young people play an inordinate amount of computer games. Film and pop stars are now our main role models, with a level of decadence and excess that only very few of the people could and ever will match. Entertainment has become Huxley's soma of the people, dulling their desire to challenge the status quo and giving those who would manipulate us a far easier task. The main way to keep ratings high on national television is to appeal to the primitive emotions of fear and anger. This sensationalism is one of the main reasons for the negative effect of this medium on the people and to its alarming distortion of reality.

Drugs and Alcohol: An extension of entertainment, drugs and alcohol give the people an "outlet" for their dissatisfaction and unhappiness, often sublimating their desire to democratically make changes in the society in which they live. The consumption of excessive alcohol, painkillers and anti-depressants has reached epidemic proportions. Some drugs, such as hallucinogens, can heighten our perception of what is going on in the world provided they are taken in the right context and not as an escape, but by far the majority of people are taking recreational drugs to cloud their perception of reality. A population that uses these sorts of escape valves is far less likely to challenge the status quo.

Romance / Sex Fixation: Romance and sex have always had a huge and healthy part to play in society. But when these two desires are railroaded by corporations then our natural instincts are being used to powerfully manipulate our behaviour into supporting the designs of others. There is nothing romantic about murder, but that has not stopped even war, which is mass murder, from becoming romanticized in our popular media.

Assumed Authority: Most people have an unhealthy respect for those in authority. This makes them controllable by those who assume that authority. Many young people today dislike people in authority, but this is usually only a psychological stage through which they are going to being adult members of society. In fact, hatred for authority is little different to love for it. We have to realize that in a democracy, anybody in "authority" is just a human being acting as a particular servant to the people. (Authority in corporations is a different matter as these are not democratic institutions.) Blindly following authority, however, can have devastating consequences. Each year in the United States, for example, 113,000 people die from the side-effects of medical drugs or errors in medication, but still most are unwilling to challenge their doctor's opinions because they are not only afraid of challenging authority, they love to acquiesce in it.

National Self-Centeredness: It is very easy for us in the West to be blind to the reason why "foreigners" get so upset about our military expansion and intervention in world affairs. We forget that if another country, say China, behaved in the way the US behaves internationally, we would be preparing for war. Nations are naturally self-centered, and what we might label as "defence" or a "war on terrorism" is very likely to be labeled as "attack" and "imperialist expansion" by those outside our borders. If, for example, Iran insisted on having a military base in Mexico, there would be national outcry in the US (and no doubt the rest of the Americas) and yet the US does not understand a similar response from other countries to the copious US military bases worldwide. In this way, people, corporations and governments are blind to their own actions because they have a short-sighted perspective. The people are thus manipulated into supporting "defence" when it is really offence. Denial is also involved with those with a strong sense of nationalism. George Orwell once wrote, "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side. He has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

Bogus History: George Orwell said "He who controls the past commands the future." History is being rewritten at every available opportunity by governments, corporations, religions and filmmakers in order to manipulate the worldview of the people. From the holocaust deniers to those that try to justify the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan at the end of WWII (despite the fact that Japan has already surrendered), history is continually rewritten to support particular ideological frameworks and of course national triumphantism. Today, few understand the hatred of the Middle-Eastern countries towards the West, conveniently attributing it to something as irrational as Islamic Fundamentalism. In reality, the West and especially the US was shamelessly manipulating this region of the world for most of the 20th Century and entirely out of self-interest. If anyone needs to understand this hatred, the irrationality of religious fundamentalism is most certainly not the place to start.

Insults: It is remarkable that in the 21st century, name calling is still one of the major techniques of political "discussion" at the highest level. Branding someone as a "communist" or a "socialist" is still considered a terrible slur, especially in the US. Like appeals to patriotism, insulting someone in this way is used ad nausea by government, corporate and other fascist representatives who have been presented with undeniable facts for their wrongdoing against the people. The Founding Fathers of the US would no doubt be liable to this insult if they were alive today for their people-oriented constitution.

Physical Intimidation: Of course, if none of the above techniques are working, "democracies" can resort to physical intimidation. I have a friend who was beaten by police in the US for just being on the street during a political protest… she wasn't taking part and was just watching the marchers pass. In the United Police State of America intimidation of the people is used to keep society in line, and it is absolutely incorrect to believe that physical abuse of captives only happens in far off dictatorships and socialist countries. The US illegally holds and tortures Afghan prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention. This is an astonishing example by the so called flagship of democracy to set to the rest of the world and to its own population. The message to the world is Might is Right (and so is torture).

All these methods and situations are used to manipulate society. Of course, it has been argued that some manipulation is necessary in order to have people fulfill their "function" or "role" in society: give their life to the corporate world, have 2.2 children, obediently pay off their mortgage, and silently go off to war like lambs to the slaughter to "defend" their country. Otherwise, God Forbid, the corporate world would crumble, people might have no children… or 10 out of wedlock, the banks might lose the interest that they charge on imaginary money (fractional reserve banking) and a lot less innocent women, men and children might be murdered in far off countries (or by state-sponsored medical poisons). What some call the positive or essential role of this manipulation or propaganda still takes away power from the people and puts it into a societal structure that benefits the few at the expense of the many. This clearly contravenes the ideals of democracy in which the people hold the power and make the decisions.

If democracy is something worth preserving (it might not be ideal but history bears testimony to the disasters and terrible suffering that inevitably happen when the people do not hold the power) then we have to reduce the level of manipulation on our lives so that we begin to act consciously in our interests rather than unconsciously in the interests of the few (politicians, big business, the military, banks etc.)

BREAKING FREE

Reducing our susceptibility to manipulation is actually relatively easy, although it does take effort. Part of it is just becoming conscious of the methods of manipulation above by thinking deeply about them, but this must be accompanied by an effort to push against the norm, against what everybody else does. However, it is a small price to pay when one considers that democracy itself and the freedom of our children is at stake. Manipulation may well be endemic in society, but the following steps will be more than enough to immunise us against its influence:

Stop Watching Television: Throw it out! There is no other medium that causes more distortion and manipulation than television. With its neuron-numbing sound bites, dissociated facts and images, its huge susceptibility to government and corporate propaganda due to almost 100% big business ownership, its distortion of the most serious situations like war into entertainment, and its ominous presence in every home, television has become the number one tool for manipulating society.

Stop Mainstream Newspapers, Magazines and Radio: These also present a highly distorted picture of the world, especially in the United States where media diversity is almost nonexistent. (There are a still a few good national newspapers here in UK such as The Guardian and The Independent.) Alternative press is very strong in magazine department and it is easy to find very good alternative magazines, often in your local health shop.

Get Your News Online: The internet is a great place to learn about what is going on in the world due to the very small setup costs that allow a huge diversity of opinion. Sites that are worth getting your basic news from might include YearZero.org, IndyMedia.org, AlterNet.org, MotherJones.com, Greenpeace.org, CorpWatch.org, YellowTimes.org, TomPaine.com, DisInfo.com WorkingforChange.com, GuerrillaNews.com, GlobalResearch.ca, InformationClearingHouse.info, CorporateWatch.org.uk, PositiveNews.org.uk and OneWorld.net. These will also give a much more democracy-friendly, global, accurate and less nationalistic perspective. (Most mainstream news is a complete waste of attention.)

Stop Waving The Flag: A human being is a human being no matter what country he or she happens to be born into. If we truly love and care about humanity, we accept people no matter what their country of origin. For too long countries like the America and the United Kingdom (and many others) have hidden behind a wall of patriotism, a wall that serves only to dehumanize those that we exploit in our imperialism.

Become Politically Involved: Although this means more than a vote every few years, a vote is a good place to start as voting turnouts have never been as low due to the increasing insignificance that people feel. Being politically active also means lobbying your local MP or senator over injustice in society and the environment (both in your own country and abroad), protesting against corporate behaviour that is at odds with the interests of society and humanity, and discussing matters over with friends and associates. Orchestrating purchasing power in a community is a very powerful way to rein in governments and corporations.

Read Recommended Books: Read some of the books that have been recommended on this site. These will give detail, the context and understanding that the mass media cannot even begin to cover.

Get Out Of Debt: It's easy to say and impossible for many, but if one can, even if sacrifices are needed to do so, it is better not to be in debt as the contract of a debt (mortgage, borrowing etc.) manipulates you into being a slave. Whilst many unfortunately have no choice as their very survival has created debt, it is concerning that there are a huge and growing number of people who are in debt not because they can't afford food and shelter, but because they have bought into the propaganda that they "need" a faster car, that bigger house and the latest flat-screen television.

Use Alternative Money Systems: Money is the currency of power. By using alternative money systems like LETTS, those that set up the official money systems (the few) can no longer drain power from the people. A money system is a contractual arrangement between two entities, and ideally one should use a system that only serves the interests of the people and the community.

Free The Mind: This is the hardest and most profound of all the steps to stop manipulation, and comes from a combination of self-education, focus and self-belief. A mind that knows itself knows how to be free and knows when it is being manipulated. It is a fact that those who have substantially practiced meditation or conscious introspection find it far easier to know when another person is lying or trying to manipulate them. Whether mediation means sitting cross-legged in front of an altar or walking out in the wilderness, practicing freedom of the mind — self-knowledge — makes us much more aware of the processes of enslavement. Timothy Leary, for example, was one of the freest men around, even when he was in jail, because he was free where it counted, in his mind. Whilst he used a lot of psychedelics to help him reach that level of self-knowledge, it can be achieved by anybody with non-drug methods such as meditation or other spiritual practices. Another technique that works wonders on the mind is to stop wearing a watch as often as possible… time synchronizes our mind energy with society's control systems.

Defend human rights and freedoms: If those in authority violate our human rights and freedoms, it is our duty to fight back for them in the courts. Increasingly, this is one of the only remaining places that we can challenge the system — mass protests don't seem to be as effective as they used to be. Do not let those in authority walk over you. If you do, you just make it easier for them to do the same thing to others, and the whole effect snowballs to Big Brother catastrophe.

Protest at every opportunity: Even though protests seem less effective these days, they serve the important purpose of uniting the people protesting. There is nothing more inspiring then physically marching with others for the common good of society.

Network, network, network: When we first start to question our assumptions about reality, our map of reality, it is natural to withdraw from the world whilst we re-evaluate ourselves. Often such a process can be quite emotional because we realize that the whole edifice of our lives has been based on lies (or at least on wildly inaccurate maps of reality). This process of doing the inner work is necessary for each individual to go through; each has to have his or her own dark night of the soul. But that process does not last forever: provided that we do not resist anything, we naturally move through to liberation, realizing that we no longer need society's template against which to measure ourselves. We become free, and it is natural to then want to go back into society and network with others like ourselves who are working for the liberation of humanity. Community is very important to help us stay awake, for mutual inspiration, and because we are much more effective when we work as a team. Each of us undertaking this journey has been helped by others who came before us, and we can express our gratitude to them and to the whole grand process of awakening by expressing that freedom in each situation and to every person that we meet (it could be just a simple smile to a stranger). That is our soul responsibility.

Anyone who follows all twelve steps above will be immunised from 95% of all societal manipulation. If a critical mass of people follows them (perhaps no more than 5%), power will gradually begin to return to the people and democracy will be restored. Otherwise, we will continue to unconsciously squander the democracy our forebears literally died for (THAT is the value of democracy), and we will wake up one day, sooner than we think, in a dictatorship. The choice is ours.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

As we wander around, distracted by the superficial and meaningless, in technocratic slumber, is it any wonder that zombies are so popular today? Yet, as we're gradually transforming into a feudal state, a population of rote, wooden, listless automatons is exactly what the governing elite need. It's very convenient.

According to the Wall Street Journal, 71% of all college graduates have an average student loan debt of $35,000 with very little prospect of secure full time employment. Shouldn't young people and their parents be up in arms? But they're not. In fact, parents are still pushing their kids into this racketeering enterprise.

Why?

Perhaps because of the consuming, immediately gratifying Orwellian environment that "nurtured" them; public schools that indoctrinate and train for the workplace, for the police state...where "wars" on terror and drugs escalate the problem instead of correcting it. Are young people becoming increasingly ignorant, obedient, and conforming? Do they have a choice?

“The nation’s young people have been given front-row seats for an unfolding police drama that is rated R for profanity, violence and adult content.

In Arizona, a 7-year-old girl watched panic-stricken as a state trooper pointed his gun at her and her father during a traffic stop and reportedly threatened to shoot her father in the back (twice) based on the mistaken belief that they were driving a stolen rental car.

In Oklahoma, a 5-year-old boy watched as a police officer used a high-powered rifle to shoot his dog Opie multiple times in his family’s backyard while other children were also present. The police officer was mistakenly attempting to deliver a warrant on a 10-year-old case for someone who hadn’t lived at that address in a decade.

In Maryland, a 5-year-old boy was shot when police exchanged gunfire with the child’s mother—eventually killing her—over a dispute that began when Korryn Gaines refused to accept a traffic ticket for driving without a license plate on her car.

It’s difficult enough raising a child in a world ravaged by war, disease, poverty and hate, but when you add the police state into the mix, it becomes near impossible to guard against the growing unease that some of the monsters of our age come dressed in government uniforms.

The lesson being taught to our youngest—and most impressionable—citizens is this: in the American police state, you’re either a prisoner (shackled, controlled, monitored, ordered about, limited in what you can do and say, your life not your own) or a prison bureaucrat (politician, police officer, judge, jailer, spy, profiteer, etc.).

Unfortunately, now that school is back in session, life is that much worse for the children of the American police state.

The nation’s public schools—extensions of the world beyond the schoolhouse gates, a world that is increasingly hostile to freedom—have become microcosms of the American police state, containing almost every aspect of the militarized, intolerant, senseless, overcriminalized, legalistic, surveillance-riddled, totalitarian landscape that plagues those of us on the “outside.”

If your child is fortunate enough to survive his encounter with the public schools with his individuality and freedoms intact, you should count yourself fortunate.

Most students are not so lucky.

From the moment a child enters one of the nation’s 98,000 public schools to the moment he or she graduates, they will be exposed to a steady diet of

It used to be that if you talked back to a teacher, or played a prank on a classmate, or just failed to do your homework, you might find yourself in detention or doing an extra writing assignment after school.

That is no longer the case.

Nowadays, students are not only punished for minor transgressions such as playing cops and robbers on the playground, bringing LEGOs to school, or having a food fight, but the punishments have become far more severe, shifting from detention and visits to the principal’s office into misdemeanor tickets, juvenile court, handcuffs, tasers and even prison terms.

Students have been suspended under school zero tolerance policies for bringing to school “look alike substances” such as oregano, breath mints, birth control pills and powdered sugar.

For instance, a Virginia sixth grader, the son of two school teachers and a member of the school’s gifted program, was suspended for a year after school officials found a leaf (likely a maple leaf) in his backpack that they suspected was marijuana. Despite the fact that the leaf in question was not marijuana (a fact that officials knew almost immediately), the 11-year-old was still kicked out of school, charged with marijuana possession in juvenile court, enrolled in an alternative school away from his friends, subjected to twice-daily searches for drugs, and forced to be evaluated for substance abuse problems.

Look-alike weapons (toy guns—even Lego-sized ones, hand-drawn pictures of guns, pencils twirled in a “threatening” manner, imaginary bows and arrows, even fingers positioned like guns) can also land a student in hot water.

Acts of kindness, concern or basic manners can also result in suspensions. One 13-year-old was given detention for exposing the school to “liability” by sharing his lunch with a hungry friend. A third grader was suspended for shaving her head in sympathy for a friend who had lost her hair to chemotherapy. And then there was the high school senior who was suspended for saying “bless you” after a fellow classmate sneezed.

Consider that by the time the average young person in America finishes their public school education, nearly one out of every three of them will have been arrested.

More than 3 million students are suspended or expelled from schools every year, often for minor misbehavior, such as “disruptive behavior” or “insubordination.” Black students are three times more likely than white students to face suspension and expulsion.

In South Carolina, where it’s against the law to disturb a school, more than a thousand students a year—some as young as 7 years old—“face criminal charges for not following directions, loitering, cursing, or the vague allegation of acting ‘obnoxiously.’ If charged as adults, they can be held in jail for up to 90 days.”

Moreover, just as militarized police who look, think and act like soldiers on a battlefield have made our communities less safe, the growing presence of police in the nation’s schools is resulting in environments in which it’s no longer safe for children to act like children.

Thanks to a combination of media hype, political pandering and financial incentives, the use of armed police officers to patrol school hallways has risen dramatically in recent years. Funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, these school resource officers have become de facto wardens in elementary, middle and high schools, doling out their own brand of justice to the so-called “criminals” in their midst with the help of tasers, pepper spray, batons and brute force.

The horror stories are legion.

One school police officer was accused of punching a 13-year-old student in the face for cutting the cafeteria line. That same cop put another student in a chokehold a week later, allegedly knocking the student unconscious and causing a brain injury. In Pennsylvania, a student was tasered after ignoring an order to put his cell phone away.

Defending the use of handcuffs and pepper spray to subdue students, one Alabama police department reasoned that if they can employ such tactics on young people away from school, they should also be permitted to do so on campus.

Now advocates for such harsh police tactics and weaponry will tell you that school safety should be our first priority.

What they might fail to mention in their zeal to lock down the schools are the lucrative, multi-million dollar deals being cut with military contractors to equip school cops with tasers, tanks, rifles and $100,000 shooting detection systems.

Indeed, the militarization of the police has been mirrored in the public schools, where school police have been gifted with high-powered M16 rifles, MRAP armored vehicles, grenade launchers, and other military gear. One Texas school district even boasts its own 12-member SWAT team.

According to one law review article on the school-to-prison pipeline, “Many school districts have formed their own police departments, some so large they rival the forces of major United States cities in size. For example, the safety division in New York City’s public schools is so large that if it were a local police department, it would be the fifth-largest police force in the country.”

The term “school-to-prison pipeline” refers to a phenomenon in which children who are suspended or expelled from school have a greater likelihood of ending up in jail.

What we’re grappling with, you see, is not merely a public school system that resembles a prison and is treating young people like prisoners but also a profit-driven system of incarceration has given rise to a growth in juvenile prisons and financial incentives for jailing young people.

Indeed, young people have become easy targets for the private prison industry, which profits from criminalizing childish behavior and jailing young people. Nearly 40 percent of young people who are arrested will serve time in a private prison, where the emphasis is on making profits for large megacorporations above all else.

It has been said that America’s schools are the training ground for future generations.

Instead of raising up a generation of freedom fighters, however, we seem to be busy churning out newly minted citizens of the American police state who are being taught the hard way what it means to comply, fear and march in lockstep with the government’s dictates.

As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, it’s getting harder by the day to convince young people that we live in a nation that values freedom and which is governed by the rule of law.

With every school police raid and overzealous punishment that is carried out in the name of school safety, the lesson being imparted is that Americans—especially young people—have no rights at all against the state or the police.

The bottom line is this: if you want a nation of criminals, treat the citizenry like criminals.

If you want young people who grow up seeing themselves as prisoners, run the schools like prisons.

But if you want to raise up a generation of freedom fighters, who will actually operate with justice, fairness, accountability and equality towards each other and their government, then run the schools like freedom forums. Remove the metal detectors and surveillance cameras, re-assign the cops elsewhere, and start treating our nation’s young people like citizens of a republic and not inmates in a police state.

“The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern.”—C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Saturday, June 18, 2016

It's time to draw a line in the sand because we've had our collective heads buried in this loose material consisting of rock or mineral grains for far too long. The impact of this elementary particle on our lives is second to only air and water. I had no idea!

Yes, I knew that sand is melted and transformed into glass, that it's crucial to the computer industry, and, of course, to the sabbaticals we take to rest and recreate, but I had no idea that it's the foundation of our modern development, our infrastructure, our way of life. From highways and habitats--reinforced concrete is two-thirds sand-- to cleaning products to cosmetics to food and wine to you name it, sand is at the core.

The construction of one average house takes 200 tons of sand; hospital takes 3,000 tons of sand; each km of highway takes 30,000 tons of sand, and construction of a nuclear plant requires 12 million tons of sand. That's a hell of a lot of sand! This kind of demand has created the never spoken of sand wars, sand mafias, and most important of all, to environmental damage the likes of which we've never seen.

No, the following documentary has absolutely nothing to do with "flat earth". So please do not disregard if you are not a "flat earther"; it's far too important. Having said that, I am very grateful to him for uploading this all important documentary.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”

In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.

In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.

In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”

In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”

In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”

In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”

The ninth video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.

The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts — including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies.The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit.

Unreleased Videos: Unreleased videos from CMP show Deb Vanderhei of Planned Parenthood caught on tape talking about how Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliates may “want to increase revenue [from selling baby parts] but we can’t stop them…” Another video has a woman talking about the “financial incentives” of selling aborted baby body parts.

Sunday, January 03, 2016

I have no idea if Bill Cosby is innocent or guilty of rape, just that he's innocent until proven guilty.

due process

“the regular administration of the law, according to which no citizen may be denied his or her legal rights and all laws must conform to fundamental, accepted legal principles, as the right of the accused to confront his or her accusers.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Hunger in the US is now the highest since the era of the Great Depression as real unemployment is much higher than the 5.6% rate reported in the mainstream media (closer to 40-50% if you include the marginally employed); as earnings are stagnant or declining for 90% of the work force; as inflation of food prices spiral out of control, not to mention a significantly compromised social safety net and the subtle, yet continuous effort to criminalize poverty.

Unlike now, during the Depression tightly knit communities and family farms stretched across the nation to provide a safety net that served to catch some or many of those who suffered the worst consequences of the failed economy. Unlike now, people knew the entire nation was struggling. They knew that times were hard and were less likely to fault the individual.

Today, society is fragmented and the establishment media is taking advantage of that by deceiving people into believing our economy is improving and anyone who is not making ends meet...well, it's their fault! They're not trying hard enough! In fact, the criminalization of poverty is a growing trend in America.

“But many things have changed in the last 50 years, some of them so recently as to have gone largely unnoticed by pundits and policy makers. The poor, and especially poor people of color, have long been over-represented in the prison population. This used to be attributed to the fact that the poor are more likely to be tempted by criminal activities such as theft and drug dealing. Just in the last ten years, however, it has become apparent that being poor is in itself a crime in many cities and counties, and that it is a crime punished by further impoverishment. As Karen Dolan explains in this hard-hitting report, a simple traffic violation – such as a broken tail-light – can bring down a cascade of fees and fines, which mount quickly if not paid on time and can lead to incarceration.

The mid-00s were a turning point in the criminal justice system’s treatment of misdemeanors. Local governments increased the fees, fines and court costs they levied for minor transgressions, and at the same time, increased the number of possible misdemeanors to include truancy (for which parents can be punished), driving with an expired license (as is the case in Washington, DC), putting one’s feet up on a subway seat (in New York City), and a variety of other minor infractions. The latter two are grounds for immediate arrest, leading to the imposition of fines and court costs. If the defendant cannot pay, he or she may be jailed and, in the ugliest twist of all – later charged for the cost of room and board, then re-jailed for failing to pay that. If the defendant is put on probation, he or she must pay for the probation officer and anything else required for monitoring, like an ankle bracelet.

Ferguson, Missouri helped bring attention to the extent of “offender-funded” criminal justice services. The city was relying on fees, fines, and court costs for 20 percent of its budget, effectively turning it into an occupied territory, with a 95 percent white police force supporting itself by forcibly preying on a nearly 70 percent black population.

Who benefits from this “criminalization of poverty”? In the short-term, municipalities and counties may appear to benefit, as well as the private companies that increasingly provide probation services and operate detention facilities and prisons. In addition, the increasing barriers, such as drug testing and criminal record searches, to social benefits like public housing, SNAP, and TANF may also temporarily help relieve cash-strapped local governments. But the overall effect is to perpetuate poverty and even expand the poverty population, to no possible good effect. Poor and indigent people cannot afford to pay for the means to coerce and incarcerate them, and nothing is gained by repeatedly jailing them. The criminalization of poverty – and increasing impoverishment of people judged to be criminals — amounts to a system of organized sadism.

This is the real “cycle of poverty:” Poverty leads easily to criminal charges from unpaid debts, unrenewed licenses and the like. Criminal charges in turn lead to ever-mounting debt and, despite laws prohibiting debtors’ prisons, to incarceration. There is no mystery about where government needs to intervene — first, by stopping the persecution of people who are already struggling to get by, and second, by mitigating that struggle

So, big cities across the nation are struggling to keep up with the growing number of homeless, hungry Americans. Washington, D.C., our capital wins this contest as it increased its homeless population by more than 60% in 2015.

“The past year has marked the year of homelessness in the US as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Seattle — America's most populated areas — hosted a huge jump in the number of people on the streets, according to the Hunger and Homelessness study. Washington, D.C. ranks first in the list of cities with homeless as figures say it has 28 percent more homeless and 60 percent more transient families. The demand for food for the hungry rose 27 percent over last year's.

The survey said that across twenty-two cities including Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, homelessness rose by 1.6 percent overall and handouts increased by 3 percent over the past year.

Emergency food assistance requests rose by an average of 2.8 percent during the survey period in more than half, 61 percent, of the cities involved in the survey.

Twenty-three percent of requests for emergency food assistance in the cities surveyed went unmet.

Food pantries and emergency kitchens had to cut back on the amount of food given out as groceries or meals in 47 percent of cities involved in the survey. Additionally, in far more than half of cities surveyed, 57 percent, families and individuals had to cut down on the number of visits to charitable food outlets they could make each month. The same percentage of cities were unable to meet food requests by homeless and hungry residents demand because they lacked sufficient resources.

Lack of affordable housing, an issue that continues to worsen in many places around the country, was the primary reason given for homelessness among families with children. Poverty, unemployment and low-paying jobs were the reasons that followed.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

The "middle class" is an historical anomaly and in my humble opinion, was artificially created to build the wealth of the ownership class until it was no longer needed. Well, this class is no longer needed, hence its current decline.

Today, as J.A. Myerson point out in the video below, "the middle class is the working class plus debt." We're now in the process of returning to the natural harmonious capitalist order which does not include a "middle class". Home ownership, college, medical insurance, etc. is a privilege of wealth

“In the digital age where American workers have increased their productivity hugely with no real increase to their wages, the middle class has only been able to keep up the incredible consumption schedule it is used to by taking on a ton of debt. We go into debt to buy the home, the health care, the education, the automobile, that working class people aren’t traditionally entitled."

Saturday, October 10, 2015

“The modern world of superficiality has clouded our ability to TRULY communicate with each other.

It often seems futile in our modern world of superficiality to speak with meaning. The classics of old have been replaced with the sleaze of today. Meaningful thoughts and ideas often remain unheard because of the shallowness of our modern society

Instead of reaching down within one’s soul, modern man reaches out toward mass media and looks toward the world of illusion to fill his brain with hollow thoughts nothingness.

How do we communicate with a world enchanted by the flashy appearance of our technological age? To a mass of people who escape the reality of their existence by taking part in the video drone and not in the natural world.

The words of those who see the world for what it truly is as tragic and unfortunate as it truly is has fallen on deaf ears. -- MrStosh

Sounds of silence

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence

“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grow
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets
Are written on subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”